(C) Daily Montanan
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The others and us – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'August', 'Russell Rowland']

Date: 2023-08-01  

When the railroad came to Montana, rail companies hired thousands of Chinese laborers to drive spikes, paying a pittance. Once they completed that job, many of the Chinese who stayed gravitated to Butte and Anaconda, hoping to procure jobs in the mines. But they did not receive a warm reception in those communities, because they were seen as a threat to take away jobs from the locals.

Many opened their own businesses, generally laundromats and small markets, but the unions secretly instituted a $5 fine to anyone who did business with ‘a Chinaman.’ In 1882, America passed The Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first legislation to limit the number of people who could enter from a specific country, and although Butte voted against honoring this legislation, the animosity was strong enough that the Chinese community in Montana mostly disappeared.

During WWI, the anti-German sentiment in Montana became so profound that a German farm family near Livingston, the Urbachs, woke in the middle of the night to a massive explosion. Mr. Urbach found his wife dead next to him and became so distraught that he slashed his own throat. The crime was never solved.

Missoula is known today for being the most diverse city in the state. But from 1941 to 1944, Fort Missoula imprisoned more than 1,000 Italians, more than 1,000 Japanese, and 22 German nationals. They were never charged with a crime. And perhaps most disturbingly, most of the Japanese that the government arrested had become the best examples of living the American dream, by becoming successful in business. They were arrested because the government deemed them as possible threats. In one particularly heartbreaking instance, a Japanese mercantile owner, Masao Yasui, from Oregon, had to appear before one of the “Loyalty Hearings” where a board would decide their fate. Because they found some drawings of the Panama Canal in the Yasui home, drawings that were actually school assignments from his kids, they accused Yasui of planning an attack on the Panama Canal. When Yasui returned to Oregon after his internment, the locals received him as if he was guilty, and he eventually committed suicide.

Montana has a reputation as a warm, friendly place, and it is well earned. But like most places, our state also has a history of targeting certain groups, usually for political reasons. Of course, the Native community has always been a convenient and frequent target, and that brand of racism is so deeply systemic in Montana’s culture that it’s hard to imagine how we will ever find our way out of it. But other targets seem to come about from concerted efforts by groups that can’t rest unless they have someone to demonize.

And the current target is the LGBTQ+ community. It started when they had the audacity a few years ago to get an NDO (non-discrimination ordnance) passed in most of the larger cities in Montana, which caused opponents to raise their usual cry, branding this request for normal treatment as a demand for special treatment.

A few years ago, my friend Adria Jawort came out as trans, and because they are also a writer, they became heavily involved in promoting the LGBTQ+ cause, becoming a lobbyist during the 2021 session. Their presence in the legislative halls didn’t sit well with some, especially ultra-right-wing newspaper editor Jordan Hall of Sidney. Hall wrote an article accusing Jawort of threatening a legislator on the capitol steps, a story that was completely fabricated, and Jawort won a lawsuit against Hall last year.

Then came the incident with state legislator Zooey Zephyr, whose crime was to speak up on the floor about the dangers of marginalizing LGBTQ+ people. She ended up gaining national attention for being banned from the floor. In other words, marginalized.

The next step was to pass House Bill 359, which was designed to ban “Drag Queen Storytime” in public libraries, despite the fact that these events are entirely optional and despite no evidence whatsoever that they have ever caused any emotional damage to anyone.

Because of this bill, last month the Silver Bow County Public Library was advised by their lawyers to cancel Jawort’s talk about Two Spirit People, citing HB 359, a talk that has no relationship to Drag Queen Storytime.

So Jawort and nine other plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit challenging HB 359, citing the ambiguity and broad guidelines. A similar bill was recently blocked by a judge in Tennessee, by a Trump appointed judge. The bill potentially gives license to ban people dressed in Disney costumes from reading to kids, or to perform plays with characters who are men dressed as women, which includes some of the most famous plays ever written. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris blocked HB 359, but proponents of the bill promised to fight back.

Sadly, there is a breed of politician today that believes it’s clever and amusing to throw around inflammatory accusations just to draw attention to themselves. These people don’t consider the long-term effects of their rhetoric, but there is a long history of this kind of language leading to violence, or mental health issues for the victims.

I grew up in small towns in Montana, and of course, there were occasional incidents of violence, but there are also stories like one I heard recently about a man who showed up at his job as a mechanic one day wearing lipstick. His co-workers asked why he was wearing lipstick, and he answered that he liked the way it looked. Although they razzed him a little, nobody gave him much guff about it. Eventually he came to work with full makeup, and finally he came to work dressed as a woman, and told them he wanted to be called Jessica (not the actual name).

So how did his co-workers respond? They had a company softball team, and Jessica’s co-workers pitched in to buy a new jersey for Jessica.

There is always a choice. Just as we as individuals choose how we are going to treat other people, every community, town, state and country has the power to decide how they are going to treat those who are different.

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